Sports

Boys Serve Deerfield First Loss of the Season

In a heated meet between two undefeated teams with a combined total of six New England Championships in the past six years, Andover Boys Swimming and Diving posted a decisive 108-78 victory over Deerfield on Saturday and set several season records in the process. “I’m definitely proud,” said Captain Joe Faller ’14. “The new kids stepped it up, the returners stepped it up, and it was nice to see the team get in some of the fastest racing all season.” Since 2005, Deerfield has been the only in-league team to defeat Andover. In 2008, Deerfield defeated Andover, 95-91. “The biggest challenge going in was we didn’t know how we were going to perform,” said David Cao ’14. “We lost so many Seniors last year, and we knew Deerfield lost a lot of Seniors, but we didn’t know how the meet would turn out.” In the first event of the day, the 200 Medley relay, Andover’s powerhouse team of Tim Wynter ’14, Aaron Teo ’15, Faller and Scott Simpson ’14 secured first place in 1:36.85, setting the 12th fastest time in the history of New England Prep School Swimming. Deerfield squeezed into second place with 1:38.20, and Andover also captured third and fourth place. “As the meet went on, we captured the momentum of our first win,” said Chris Li ’15. “There’s always that nerve of trying to beat them again, and that [win] really got us all hyped.” Deerfield proved tough competition in the 200 Freestyle,with the New England season record-holder surging just past Travis Bouscaren ’14 in the final 50 meters of the race. Bouscaren’s final time of 1:48.34 was still an Andover season best, and Faller secured third just behind him with a time of 1:48.96. Deerfield again took the top spot in the 200 IM, but in his first time racing the IM, Teo exceeded expectations by placing second with a time of 2:00.30. “It was a close race, but despite it being the first time, it was a good experience,” Teo said. “I know now what to expect, and I’ll train harder.” In the next event, the 50 Freestyle, Andover finished second, third and fourth place with Cao in 22.72, Heson Oh ’14 in 22.98 and Simpson in 23.03. By the end of the diving event, in which Kade Call ’14 placed third, Graham Johns ’14 followed in fourth and Thomas Bakken ’14 finished sixth, Andover and Deerfield were tied 39-39. When Wynter returned to the pool for the 100 Butterfly, he not only secured first place with 50.79 but also beat his own former pool record and claimed the second-fastest time in school history. Faller then faced Deerfield’s fastest swimmer in the 100 Freestyle and led the race 22.93 to 23.17 at the 50 meter mark. Although Faller fell behind in the second half of the race, his time of 48.15, just 0.25 seconds behind first place, was a season best and enough for second place. Bouscaren once again faced tough opponents in the 500 Freestyle but delivered a season best time of 4:56.38 for second place, followed by Andrew Yang ’14 in fourth bringing the overall score of the meet to 66-60. However, Andover swept the next two events, taking first and second in the 200 Freestyle Relay and first, second and third in the 100 Backstroke to boost the team’s lead to 91-65. In the 200 Freestyle Relay, Oh, Darren Ty ’16, Cao and Simpson won with a time of 1:31.29, and Andrew Xuan ’13, Cho, Marcello Rossi ’16 and Alex Li ’15 out-touched Deerfield by 0.10 to take second place. Teo again swam an event for the first time in the 100 Breastroke, and he once again had an impressive second place finish, coming in behind the season record holder by 0.18 seconds. In the final event of the day, the 400 Freestyle Relay, the team of Faller, Bouscaren, Simpson and Wynter captured first with a time of 3:14.05. “We performed really well under the pressure,” said Yang. “Every point counted.” “Today’s meet showed Andover’s program at its best: the meet was not won by a handful of elite performers… but rather by every member of the team in position to score points actually doing so. As the team knew entering the competition, the meet would not be won or lost in the middle lanes where the fastest swimmers are but rather in the outer lanes,” wrote Coach Fox in an e-mail to The Phillipian. Andover looks to continue its strong season in its next meet against Hopkins this Saturday.